Life is Stranger

The Magic Words

Chloe's head slid down slowly into Max's lap. Hot tears seeped through the denim. Max could feel Chloe's agony spreading slowly over the skin of her thighs. Her own pain rained down on the blue tresses below.

"Oh Chloe. I'm so sorry. It's all my fault, not yours. I didn't keep in touch. I...I'm the worst...I should have...I'm sorry Chloe..."

Chloe began to pound away at Max's thighs with her fists, but there was hardly any force in the blows. "Max, why didn't you? You were all that I had left – the only thing still holding me together. The one thing stopping me from falling to pieces. I'm not strong. Not even a little. It's all just a front. I'm weak and fragile, Max. You are my strength. Seeing your smile everyday was the only thing that made me want to carry on. I am nothing without you, Max. Without you, my whole life is worthless – I'm worthless. Just a shell. You're the other half of me. You always have been. I called you loads of times. I sent you tons of messages. Max, why did you ignore me? Five years, Max. Five whole years. They were the worst years of my life. None of this would have happened – me jumping, Rachel, Blackwell, the boys. None of it. Max, why did you abandon me? You're everything to me. I love you. Why did you forget about me? You promised me you wouldn't. You promised me. Max, why did you do this to me?"

"I never forgot about you, Chloe. Not for a second. I was...ill for a long time after I left. I was a right mess without you, Chloe. That's why I didn't answer your messages. I never saw them. My mom...never mind. When I eventually got a little bit better, I couldn't think of what to say to you. The longer I left it, the harder it got. Those years we were apart were the most awful of my life too, Chloe – truly horrible and painful. I was always going to come back for you. I swear. If there was a way to rewind time, I totally would have. I wish I could go back and change things, I really do. I'd cross all of time and space for you if I could, Chloe. In a heartbeat."

Chloe dried her eyes on her jacket which was still draped over Max's shoulders and sat back up, looking Max in the eyes. "Max, I couldn't bear it, us being so far apart. It was ripping me up inside. I ached for you. I just had to see you, so I ran away. I came to Seattle. To your school."

"You did what? When? How come you didn't speak to me? I would have loved to have seen you. It would have made my whole year. I would have hugged you and never let you go. What the hell Chloe!"

"You came out of the doors and caught up with a boy and a girl. You were laughing. You had your arm around your boyfriend. I saw you k...kiss him. That really hurt. So I just ran away."

"Chloe, I've never had a boyfriend. Not ever. The only person I've ever kissed is you. You were my first and only proper kiss. I only had two friends in Seattle the whole time, Kristen and Fernando, and they were with each other...wait...ohmygod. I totally remember that day. There was this creepy boy who liked me so we used to act up to make him leave me alone. Oh Chloe. You saw that? I'm sorry. I just can't get my head around the fact you were even there. I so wish I'd have known. Jesus Chloe!"

"Man, I'm such a total idiot. We could have hooked up again there and then. What the hell is wrong with me?"

"Chloe?"

"Yes?"

"There's nothing wrong with you. Nothing at all. You're perfect. In every way. I wouldn't change a single thing about you. Not one."

"You think that about me? Truly?"

"No. I don't think it. I know it. Come here."

Max took Chloe's hands in her own and kissed the residual tears from her face, one by one, drinking in her pain. She delicately brushed Chloe's lips. Chloe instantly responded, passionately massaging Max's lips with her own. The smaller girl moaned softly. The kiss tapered off and Chloe withdrew to take in the wonderful sight of Max's face, trading intimacy for visual pleasure. She looked so utterly blissful, her eyes closed and lips parted ever so slightly. Max raised her fingers to her own lips, tracing their outline, then placed them on Chloe's, barely making contact as she tenderly stroked her fingertips across them.

"Max, you're simply perfect as well. All the way from your pretty head to your tiny little toes. Every single gorgeous, exquisite, beautiful, amazing, sublime, wondrous, elegant, delicate, graceful, angelic inch of you. God, I love you so much."

"Listen to the beat poet here." Max said with a cheeky smirk, slapping Chloe playfully on the leg.

"You...you...oh I am sooooo gonna make you pay for that, Caulfield!"

"Don't you dare tick..."

"Too late."

"Gerroff!"

"What are the magic words?"

"Shiver me fucking timbers."

"Eh?"

"Shiver...me...fucking...timbers."

"What? You'll have to speak up."

"Kiss me Chloe."

"Yes my Angel. Those are the ones." whispered Chloe.

The two girls smothered each other in loving kisses. Again and again